The Bitter Cold

The bitter cold comes every winter in Minnesota. This year it took its time getting here. Still, we couldn't escape so lightly.

The snow came on Friday, followed by a bitter wind. It's minus one Fahrenheit right now, with a low of -7 predicted tonight. Last night was about the same. And it looks like it is going to be a wee bit chilly for the coming week. A light zephyr is wafting across the landscape. The wind chill is -35.

Our fire cannot keep up. Our little wood stove (the very smallest one I could find, and the only insert that would fit into our tiny fireplace) is rated to heat 1,200 sq. ft. We've got a 1,600 sq. ft. living space. It's been plenty so far this mild winter. But not for this. 

Still, in a reminder of why it is important to think about preparedness, I had a call from my mother this morning. Her furnace had gone out. She doesn't have a second way to heat the house. An inadequate electric fireplace is all there is. I offered to bring over another electric heater and an indoor propane heater, but it seems that, for now, her furnace has come back on.

The kind of preparedness that I'm talking about here is maybe what could be called "mild preparedness." If, indeed, we confronted the day that is TEOWAKI (the End of the World As We Know It) as the usually right-wing crazies call it, we'd be in a lot of trouble. But so would everybody else.  

So here's what we prepare for at Steepmeadow:

• With our garden, we're going to try to cut our grocery bills a bit and provide ourselves with some healthy, fresh food. Ideally, enough to can and provide us with some veg through the winter. I don't see us growing bulk crops that can be purchased cheaply in the future (carrots, potatoes).
• We want to be able to come through a short power outage comfortably. We have light and heat that is independent of the grid. We have plenty of food and ways to cook it that don't depend on gas or electricity.
• We keep basic medicines and pain relievers around. This isn't just for, say, a pandemic where we might be on lockdown. It is also great when you run out of ibuprofen and don't want to go to the store immediately. Just bring the one from the emergency supplies up, and replace it when you go shopping next.
• The same goes for coffee pretty regularly. This keeps the emergency stash rotating. 
• Water. Everybody should have at least a few days' worth of water around for everyone in the house. A six-gallon Igloo water jug costs $17. We have two weeks' worth of water on hand, but even having a few days would be enough for most instances. The instances I'm taking about are those incidents when there is a "boil water" warning issued. Last summer this happened twice in the Twin Cities area. Bottled water is a terrible way to keep water, by the way. It doesn't last and it is full of microplastics.
• There are those who might argue that the gas masks we bought last spring are not necessary. I think it was a good idea, because of train accidents involving toxic chemicals. It's realistic, because there is a freight train hub upwind of us. That's what we bought them for. I guess they'd be nice to have if there was a nuclear or biological attack on our fair city, but I think we wouldn't last too long in that instance. 
• Fire extinguishers and blankets. We keep fire blankets at the side of our bed and in the room where the fireplace is. We keep fire extinguishers in the fireplace room and in the kitchen. I noted their expiration dates on my calendar and by "schedule sending" an email to myself in the future.
• Keeping up with prescription drugs and keeping a small stash of them on hand is prudent. We keep a week's supply in the "go bag." This would be essential in an emergency where we had to use the go bag. But it also comes in handy if there is some sort of interruption in our prescription. At least we have a little bit of a safety net. 
• The extra food in the basement? Great for an emergency like a real lockdown or storms that shutter stores for a week. But also good for a job-loss situation.
• A decent supply of cash. In an even mildly long power outage, credit cards might well not be functioning. Nice to have an alternative way to pay for things that isn't dependent on the internet.
• The go bag is a nice place to keep prescription lists, vaccination information, passports and a paper version of our contacts. We always know where they are.
• Keeping half a tank of gas in the car. This allows us to flee from toxic gas clouds or other emergencies 250 miles without stopping for fuel. It also prevents condensation in the gas tank in extreme cold like we have today. 
• We can bring our cat with us. We wouldn't leave him behind. We have a nice backpack that we could shove him, struggling, into. There's a few days's worth of cat food in the go bag.
• Having some gold and silver. I've been buying a little every month since 2016. The investment has never, ever gone down. Stocks rise and fall. An ounce of gold has been worth a tailored men's suit since the 1800's, and gold has been traded since Sumerian times. It has value without the need for computers.

Lately I've found myself filling in little gaps. I recently got us both "road ID" that has our emergency contact information on a little silver tag on our running watches. I purchased a couple of security cameras so that we can see outside when the curtains are shut for the night, and record anything happening at any of the windows or doors when we are not at home. They were $50 a piece, and the tech was easy. Even I was able to set it up.

Anyhoo, just some general thoughts about protecting ourselves. The world is an uncertain place, and it is a mistake to think that a place so dependent on the competence of others (always dubious at best) and fragile electronic infrastructure won't sometimes fail - at least for a little while.

It is a good day for daydreaming about next summer's garden. The hardscape improvements last fall have led to things looking a bit different in the plans for this year. In much the same way as the Valar re-shaped the round world when Numenor of old fell, beds were uprooted, the land was raised up, and in other places laid low. 

Furthering our realization that it is basically impossible to feed ourselves with a garden of the size that we can plant on this property (without cutting down mature trees), we are aiming less at subsistence than at luxury crops. We are adding strawberries and raspberries. We will be growing more spices - basil and Thai basil. We're going to try a high yield edamame. 

Leafy greens and peppers and tomatoes have been perennials, and we will be planting plenty of them this spring. We'll have to try to work our succession crops more attentively. 

There is much planning to do. Best get to it.